Palapa-D May Be OK After All

Indonesia’s Palapa-D telecommunications satellite has successfully arrived in geostationary transfer orbit despite the underperformance of China’s Long March 3B rocket according to Thales Alenia Space, the satellite’s manufacturer. A press release from the company states that three perigee boost maneuvers were used to reach the correct orbit for this phase of the satellite’s checkout; it still must be boosted into geostationary orbit for its operational phase. Using some of the satellite’s fuel to achieve the correct orbit may reduce the satellite’s operational life, but the company said it had conducted the unplanned perigee burns “with optimised use of propellant.”